Modern appliances such as washing machines and clothes dryers frequently provide a variety of operating options for selection by the user. For example, a washing machine may have selectable options such as the wash load size, the amount of time for the wash cycle, article types such as delicates, water temperature, and other options as well. The ability to make selections regarding the operation of the machine can be appealing to customers and influence their decisions regarding product selection.
Conventionally, user selections are provided by controls mounted e.g., on a backsplash or other panel on the appliance. For example, control knobs or switches can be provided for activating various options. In addition, user interfaces in the form of touch screens have been provided whereby the user can select an option by touching the option as it appears on the screen. Touch screens can provide certain advantages over knobs or manual switches in that e.g., a larger variety of options can be made available to the user. For example, multiple options can be made available through the use of multiple pages or displays. The user might select a wash cycle option from a first page or screen that then switches to display another page containing various options for the wash cycle. These options may in turn lead to other displays having yet additional options and so forth. Similarly, options may be provided for the rinse or spin cycles.
Touch screens, however, can increase the expense of manufacturing an appliance. In addition, the space available on e.g., the backsplash of an appliance is limited. Typically, the overall size of a washer or dryer appliance may be selected to meet architectural standards or conventional sizes. In order to maximize the usable capacity of the appliance, the back splash or other panel available for mounting a user interface is relatively small. In addition, the expense of touch screen interfaces can increase as the size of the interface increases.
As a result, the size of the selectable options that are displayed on a touch screen interface are limited by overall size of the display and the number of options to be displayed at any one time. In order to increase the number of options that can be shown on a given page of the display, it may be possible to decrease the display size of the options. However, for some users, such as e.g., those with vision problems, such displays may still seem too small or difficult to view. If too small, it may also be difficult to select one option by touch without also selecting a different, unintended option. The size of the selectable options can be increased to ease viewing. Yet, if the appliance provides multiple options, it may be necessary to provide multiple different pages for display in which the options are nested between pages or accessed through multiple levels of display. Such a configuration can seem confusing or otherwise unappealing to some consumers.
One additional problem with the user interface of an appliance can be its location. For an appliance such as a washing machine with a door mounted on top, the door may open in a manner that blocks access to user controls mounted on the back splash. As such, the user is required to either close the door or reach behind it in order to manipulate the controls.
Accordingly, a user interface for operating an appliance would be useful. More particularly, a user interface that can be provided at sizes larger than conventional appliances and with the ability to increase the number of options available for selection within a given display would be beneficial. Such a user interface that can be configured for access even when a door on the appliance is open would be of additional advantage. The ability to customize the appearance of the user interface, including its size, would also be particularly useful.